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DirecTV

Yahoo Message Number: 76094
I'm relatively new to this list and haven't yet figured out how to check the archives, so please excuse me if this subject has been beaten to death!

I've had DirecTV in three coaches and now have a new MotoSat with HD in my current '06 Magna. My problem has always been the hassle with the company. When traveling more than 300 miles or so from one's home base (in this case the Bay Area where I have my primary DirecTV account) I have to use the distant networks to get network feeds. This involves getting an FCC waiver which takes 45 days (sometimes shorter if you yell loud enough). When I finish the trip, I try to disconnect the service so that I don't have to pay double. If I do so, I have to reapply for the waiver the next time I go out and foght over the 45 day issue. Or, I can "suspend" the service in the coach, but only for more than one month and less than 6 months and only twice/year.

What I want to do is have two receivers on one account (now I have to have 2 accounts, thus paying double the $50-$70 subscription fee). They refuse to do this if one is going to have distant networks activated. My point is that I can only watch one at a time, but they're adamant. So, I have to go through the hassle of "suspending" and "unsuspending" both accounts when I either want to use one or the other, i.e. my home or the motorhome.

Am I missing a trick that someone else out there has? I've been fighting this battle for 14 years! Please feel free to respond off list, if this is an old issue. And if someone could direct me about how to use the archives, that would be great, too!

Thanks,
Dave Glen

'06 Magna #5691

Re: DirecTV

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76096
I have two separate accounts. The account for the motor home is the oldest, almost 11 years, with the east and west coast feeds and PBS for $10.00 a month.. The home account was established 4 years ago. At first when I came home from a trip putting the coach system in suspension for 6 months was about all they would tolerate. Then when I started the second account, the hassle of having one on and then the next was also beyond their understanding. Well the oldest son had a stroke 5 years ago and has since moved in with us, so the home system stays on all the time. So directv doesn't care how often I turn on and off the system in the coach anymore or if its more than six months. They even allowed me to turn off the home system for 6 weeks, this year without even as much as fuss, while he was with friends up north.. I guess now that I am a preferred customer having over ten years of service I'm allowed to do what seems to be reasonable. Now I don't want to be sexist, but I always seem to have more issues with the ladies. The gents who help me bend over backwards to make me happy, by providing me free perks, equipment upgrades, and answering my questions I ask and not the one they assume I have asked, like the ladies do, etc, etc. I don't know if the guys are bending the rules for me or not, but they keep me happy. And Like most CC owners I can be demanding and want to be treated fairly.
TWI 2004 Intrigue 11731

Re: DirecTV

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76098
It's my understanding from researching this to death is that the local affiliate stations are regulated by the FCC and limited to within 250 miles of home base. The only alternative is to pay for 2 subscriptions and add the E/W feeds for add'l $10 per month. We decided not to do that and bought a digital Winegard antenna that we use to get local channels wherever we are. Works fine.
The other alternative is to do what was posted in the previous reply. Pay for 2 subscriptions plus E/W affiliates and suspend the RV box when you're not traveling.
Lonny & Diane
'04 Allure 33'
#31065

Re: DirecTV

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76106
David,

I can address one area of your eMail regarding DirectTV. I went round and round with them for over a year about the suspension issue when not using the Coach. It turns out that if you own the equipment (meaning the DirecTV component was already installed in our Coach when we it purchased from Country Coach) then you can suspend till you are blue in the face. NO restrictions at all. As many times that you want. They pull the "suspension" issue on you assuming you are leasing the equipment.

So, bottom line, if you purchased your Coach and the DirecTV equipment was part of the purchase then you can stop service and start again anytime and as many times you want.

David Smith

08 Country Coach, Intrigue
#12267

Re: DirecTV

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76109
Dave:

I have a single DTV account at my stick home (coincidently also in the Bay Area.) I pay for multiple HD receivers from DTV. One of those receivers goes in the coach. When we travel we use one of two choices for DirecTV:

1. Stay with Bay Area locals but only watch them in standard definition. Everything else, including premium channels, remains available in HD. This simple requires aligning the dish using the coordinates for where we are physically located at the time. No contact with DirecTV is required - they never know the receiver has moved from home.

2. To get "local" HD channels for the area where the coach is currently located we have to contact DirecTV by telephone and tell them that we have a receiver temporarily in the coach and let them know where we are physically located at the time. They then turn off locals at our stick house and turn them on for where the coach is physically located. It requires a reset of the receiver and all works fine. This only creates a hassle when my wife has preprogrammed the Bay Area local HD channels to record on the home DVR. Her shows don't record in that situation. We normally live with the low def locals if we're only going to be gone a short time. And, we normally don't bother to contact DTV and reset to local locals if we're only going to be someplace for a short time. If you change the location of your locals this way, you have to contact DTV and have the information changed back when you return home.

There are no extra costs to do it this way - just some time required. And we only have to have one account. This is a standard service from DTV that is used by people with motor homes, vacation cabins and boats.

Hope that helps.
Bill

2008 Diplomat (SOB)

PS: this issue of local channels only comes up when you get about 100 miles from your home base - it seems the spread of the satellite signal cone for HD local channels is deliberately kept very narrow so that you can only get them close to home. Everything else is broadcast from a wide cone on the satellites.

DirecTV Posted by: "David Glen" dmglen@... davidmain Tue Dec 6, 2011 4:11 pm (PST)
I'm relatively new to this list and haven't yet figured out how to check the archives, so please excuse me if this subject has been beaten to death!

I've had DirecTV in three coaches and now have a new MotoSat with HD in my current '06 Magna. My problem has always been the hassle with the company. When traveling more than 300 miles or so from one's home base (in this case the Bay Area where I have my primary DirecTV account) I have to use the distant networks to get network feeds. This involves getting an FCC waiver which takes 45 days (sometimes shorter if you yell loud enough). When I finish the trip, I try to disconnect the service so that I don't have to pay double. If I do so, I have to reapply for the waiver the next time I go out and foght over the 45 day issue. Or, I can "suspend" the service in the coach, but only for more than one month and less than 6 months and only twice/year.

What I want to do is have two receivers on one account (now I have to have 2 accounts, thus paying double the $50-$70 subscription fee). They refuse to do this if one is going to have distant networks activated. My point is that I can only watch one at a time, but they're adamant. So, I have to go through the hassle of "suspending" and "unsuspending" both accounts when I either want to use one or the other, i.e. my home or the motorhome.

Am I missing a trick that someone else out there has? I've been fighting this battle for 14 years! Please feel free to respond off list, if this is an old issue. And if someone could direct me about how to use the archives, that would be great, too!

Thanks,
Dave Glen

'06 Magna #5691

Re: DirecTV

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76118
I am very familiar with Directv as I Beta Test Hardware and Software for them and I have researched how I am going to get my Directv Channels when I am in my Country Coach Affinity after I buy it next month.
You can just use one or two of your DVR/Receivers in your Coach when you are away from home and then for your Locals if you are out of the Local Spotbeam which is how you get locals and is why it is a narrow bandwidth signal beam (which is within 150 miles depending on locality) then you can buy and mount an OTA Antenna (Over The Air) and then raise it up and connect it to your Directv AM21 OTA Tuner (costs $50 from Directv) which connects to one of your DVRs.
It will then seemlessly add your OTA Channels to your Channel List and they will appear as -1, or -2 or -3 in your Guide so Channel 46 will appear as 46-1. That is all you have to do and you don't have to call Directv to do anything or suspend anything at home and everything at home will record as usual.
The OTA Antenna will cost you less than $100 and probably more like $50 plus the coax down to your DVR in your Coach.
Or the second method is to change your Service Address which is normally your Billing Address temporarily to where you are and then change it back when you get home. Directv does not like to do this but they normally will do it if you insist even though technically they can make you buy another "RV Account" because of Federal FCC laws.

Thanks and hope this helps.

Richierich

Re: DirecTV

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76119
You are exactly correct. If you "OWN" your DVR then you can move it wherever you want to but most Directv Customers who take a DVR out of their house do Not Own the DVR but are Leasing the DVR or Receiver but they do not know where you are unless you tell them.
With the OTA Antenna connected to the AM21 Directv OTA Tuner you tend to get a better signal and have less Rain Fade also which is another benefit to doing it this way.

Good Luck,

Richierich

Re: DirecTV

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76134
Hi Richard,

I wouldn't exactly call the AM-21 seamless. You have to re-program it with your local zip code when you re-locate. You also have to be withing range of the transmitters. It takes about a half an hour to change the zip code, re-acquire the program guide, and then scan the channels to find the stations that you can actually receive. This does not include rotating the OTA antenna to optimize the signal strength, which you may have to do when you change local channels from one to another.

Mike 03 Lexa

Re: DirecTV

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76135
P.S.

Another fact is that you must re-program you DVR season passes for shows that you record from the local affiliates.

Re: DirecTV

Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76148
My problem with using the OTA antenna is that I spend a month every summer in amn area of Oregon where there is no reception...behind Black Butte. Thus, I have to have the distant networks or I get only the non-broadcast stuff.

Dave Glen
'06 magna
#5691

Re: DirecTV

Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76194
When I mentioned Seamless I was referring to how Directv seamlessly integrates the OTA Channel into the regular Directv Guide so it becomes one Guide with your OTA integrated into it.
Of course, there will always be setup issues but once you do that you are Good To Go.
And if you can't get an OTA Signal you are screwed but it is a Nice Alternative to other methods to retrieve Local Programming without having to spend a lot of money.

Re: DirecTV

Reply #12 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76195
Well, you can change your Service Address to where you are located then change it back when you get back home but sometimes Directv frowns on this but I know of several RVers who do it all the time with success and once in a while they get a Directv CSR that is not too friendly so they just hang up and call back to get a CSR that is more understanding of their situation.
It is a Grey Area for sure and technically they don't have to accomodate you per FCC Rules.
 

Re: DirecTV

Reply #13 –
Yahoo Message Number: 76846
When I Posted about the AM21 being Seamless I was referring to it Seamlessly Integrating the AM21 Local Channels into your Directv Guide so it becomes an Integral Part of the Directv Guide.